396 



Part III. — Seventh Annual Report 



appliances which were used to capture surface forms and animals from 

 great depths. 



The statistical tables on the French fisheries, published by the 

 French Minister of Marine and the Colonies, are valuable as showing 

 the general and detailed results of the French fishings.* The number of 

 seamen liable to naval duty engaged in the fishing was 82,156, and the 

 number of men, women and children additionally employed in the fisheries 

 was 53,032. The value of the fish, &c. caught in 1886, by all these, 

 was upwards of 80 millions of francs. Elaborate results of the produce 

 of different kinds of fishings are given. 



SPAIN". 



A resume of the Official Reports from 1868-85, in fire volume*, t 

 Prepared by W. Anderson Smith, Esq. 



The Fisheries of Spain are in charge of a permanent Commission of 

 Fisheries, under the Ministry of Marine, local committees having again 

 charge of the various districts. Their Reports are carefully drawn up and 

 liberally distributed, 250 copies being printed on superior paper for 

 distribution in Foreign centres, for High State Departments, Royal 

 Academies, &c; while of the edition of 1250, half are for distribution 

 amongst the periodical press, the different corporations, and persons 

 likely to be benefited. The Reports range from 1868 to 1885, in five large 

 volumes, and contain a very full and most instructive account of the 

 fisheries of Spain. It is to be specially noted that a species of trawling 

 that is carried on out to very great depths by means of two vessels with a 

 net between them, and known as Arte del Bon has greatly concerned the 

 Commission, from its reputed injury to fisheries. Generally speaking 

 steam vessels are not permitted in this fishery, except as carriers ; but in 

 Cadiz, owing to the stoppage of a steamship line, an exception is made. 

 The total value of the boats and establishments pursuing this industry in 

 Spain reached in 1868 about £400,000, and the annual value of the fish 

 taken £412,000 ; — they employ 4458 people. The Commission considers 

 the size of the mesh of little consequence, as the tension is so great that no 

 fish, small or great, can pass through the nets, and those taken are all dead. 

 In the Gulf of Valencia, at a depth of about 50 fathoms, there is an extensive 

 zone in which the bottom is covered with the zoophyte Funiculina tctragona, 

 and commonly Canamizar, ' which serves for a refuge, and for food to 

 1 all classes of fish, but which to-day is found destroyed, and has almost 

 1 disappeared owing to the fishery del Ron ' (trawl). They propose to pro- 

 hibit the use of the trawl over this ground. Other systems of trawling — 

 more or less resembling that of Tarbert, Lochfyne — abound in Spain. 

 1 The Commission declares, demonstrating it in a conclusive manner, that 



* the trawling (pesca de arrastre) is one of|the principal causes of the decay 



* of the industry, by the dispersion of the fish which formerly abounded 

 'on the southern coasts of Spain. It has not proposed, however, the 

 c immediate prohibition of this disastrous fishery, but regulation, which, 

 ' without violence, and by successive restrictions, will produce its entire 



* cessation.' Again, the Fish Commission of Falamos met to consider the 

 petition of certain fishermen, and decided 'that the Boliche de roda 



* Statistique des Pitches Maritimes ct de Ostrcicidlure pour VanCe 1886, France 

 ctAlgerie. Paris, 1888. 



t These Reports were obtained by the Secretary for Scotland through the Foreign 

 Office. 



